80 Hour Work Weeks are Hard - Unless You're Having Fun
Saw a pair of postings this evening that talk about the change in the workplace, having to kill ourselves to compete with India et al. I agree with both points ...
- Tom Peters holds that having to compete against motivated, "hungry" (for advancement) folks will force us all to work long and hard - his point is that it might be longer and harder than we are comfortable with.
- Sure, but if your work is your passion and fun, you'll be surprised how many hours you can put in and not feel stressed. Now, I will admit, personal experience says that a sustained (like, over a year or more) average of 65 hours a week is tough, and peaks of 80-hour weeks get a bit stressful - just from the physicality of it. However, I see many folks at work burning too much energy on the wrong things; even if you are working 30-hour weeks, if you see 50% of that effort "wasted", then anyone would feel burnt out. Know your goals and objectives, focus your effort on those things, don't sweat the inevitable other stuff that falls by the wayside (even if others keep nagging you about it), and long hours are no-brainers.
- To me, Evelyn Rodriguez basically is saying that long hours for the sake of long hours is a waste - and there is power and opportunity in "creative laziness"
- Right on - focus on the correct priorities, and definitely make time for the fun. Note above I said sustained 65-hour weeks with 80-hour peaks.
- I'm also a huge believer in the paradox of the hard working lazy guy - that's me. I am always looking for ways to automate tasks, and I'm not just talking about backups and defrags. This fascination with maximizing the tools of my trade also allows me to keep my programming fingers in the pie, something I probably couldn't rely on to feed my face (too boring, trending towards low pay, too competitive) but certainly something I need to maintain some facility with, just so I know when the contractors are pulling my leg.
posted by James P. MacLennan at 9:44 PM
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